By Bob Deakin
I'm a Pre-Author
Happy Sunday!
Have I mentioned how much I hate exclamation points?
I have set the launch date of May 1, 2021 for An Unruly Mix (Short Stories of Music, Artists, Posers and Misfits). It is currently available as a preorder at all the major booksellers. Order now and get your eBook on April 17 or your paperback shipped from Amazon soon after.
I set up this new site and have been going through all my files, photos and pretty much everything with the name Bob Deakin on it that I only check when I must, and never want to. It’s like looking at my high school yearbook, which I do about every ten years to check and see if someone who says they went to high school with me actually did. That makes three times now that I’ve opened it.
I am excited about the pending release of the book, but my enthusiasm is tempered because I’m now simply moving onto marketing full time instead of editing, formatting and setting up multimedia in anticipation.
I remember the days when I listened to music, sports talk and podcasts for fun while toiling away at writing a story or working in the yard. Now everything I read or listen to is yet another lesson in book publishing.
I find it all fascinating but some of the recommendations from experts are a bit curious. One I recently was offered I had to ask, really? It suggested finding authors from a similar genre, trade blog posts with them and joint promote book releases.
Are you kidding? When I meet another author who writes short story satire, he or she will be the first one I have ever met in my life. Off the top of my head, here are two short story humor writers I know of: Dave Barry and David Sedaris. T.C. Boyle has written a lot of short story humor, and is one of my favorite authors, but he and both Daves are a bit out of my league at this point.
There are plenty of fantastic short story authors, of course, and I read everything I can find, but are they going to do a joint promo with me? Hmm?
Speaking of T.C. Boyle, I did summon the courage to look him up recently because I had reached wits end in settling on a title. He was prompt and polite in his responses (I reached out twice) and simply built up his reputation with me to even greater heights.
I’ll know when I’ve made it when I sit down at a table and look across and he’s sitting there looking back.
Do you hear me, T.C. Boyle?
First round is on me.